Paradise ponders, part II...

Paradise ponders, part II... Well, I got to take my afternoon walk with Miki and Race. Boy were they excited! That first photo below shows the initial hill we walk up, with the Wasatch Mountains in the background. In the field off to the right, past the white fence, we saw a kit fox again. Actually, I saw a kit fox. Our two little doggies never saw a thing :) They were very busy with their noses to the ground, looking for voles.

It was a beautiful day for a walk!

Later this afternoon the UPS man brought the plasma cutter I've been waiting for. I took it out to where Elray the well driller was working, as I'd promised him he could look it over when I got it. He pronounced it a nice piece of gear :)

Today he was able to get past the “heaving sands” layer that had him stopped yesterday. To do it, he injected foam down the well to stabilize the loose sand walls. Then he sent the drill bit all the way down to 306', cleaning out the 100' of sand that had settled in the well. After that, he hauled all that drill (16 sections, 20' long each) out of the well, welded another 10' of casing on top of the 300' he already had in the ground, and started pounding. It worked! He got through the sand layer, being temporarily held in place by the foam, and then down into a softer layer. Most likely that's a layer of clay. On Monday, he'll send all that drill stem back down the hole, and try drilling through the clay (or whatever it is he struck). The hope is that below that layer is a water-bearing layer.

Elray told me today that he had now surpassed the depth of the previously deepest well he's ever dug in the south part of Cache Valley. He's dug plenty of wells over 1,000' deep, but none near here. Hopefully our luck will change here, and we'll tap into some nice water...